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Double Hampshire junior indoor cricket champions. That’s Havant, who proudly show off their medals after winning both the Hampshire Under-13 and Under-16 Indoor Cups at Winchester’s River Park Leisure Centre.Stuart Ransley, Chris Morgan and Simon Hodgson sparkled as Havant saw off plucky St Cross Symondians and near neighbours Waterlooville to lift the Under-13 crown.The Under-16s comfortably beat Sarisbury Athletic in the final, after scraping a one-run semi-final win over Hursley Park.Matt Palmer cracked a superb 71 as Hursley were dismissed for 141, chasing Havant’s 142-5.Results – Under-13 Semi-finals
Waterlooville 195-5 (Shephard 61, Burnett 34, Robson 28, Hillman 26)
Hook & Newnham Basics 44Havant 153-2 (Morgan 39, Ransley 28, Hodgson 27, Hardacre 22)
St Cross Symondians 132-4 (Bayliss 26, Jenkins 25, Porter 25, Lovett 20, Walker 2-26)Final:
Havant 143-4 (Ransley 50, Morgan 37, Hodgson 24)
Waterlooville 116-3 (Hillman 35, Robson 28, Hudson 23)Under-16 Semi-finalsBasingstoke & North Hants 88-2 (Davies 26, James 23)
Sarisbury Athletic 90-0 (Journeaux 28, Evans 26, Ingram 24)Havant 142-5 (Wade 44, Molyneaux 33)
Hursley Park 141 (Palmer 71, van der Merwe 28)Final:
Havant 136 (Wade 57, Molyneaux 32)
Sarisbury Athletic 87 (Evans 43, Molyneaux 2-24).

Last Friday in Durban, Steve Waugh and Mark Boucher went out at Kingsmead for the toss at the start of the third Test. Just a week later, as the Standard Bank One-Day International Series gets underway at the Wanderers, a different pair of faces will watch the spin of the coin. Ricky Ponting takes over from Waugh as Australia’s now one-day captain, while Shaun Pollock returns after missing the Test series through injury."They certainly are big shoes to fill," acknowledged Ponting on Thursday. "Not having Steven or Mark around the side’s going to be different, but I think we’ve covered those guys pretty well. We’ve got a couple of young guys who’d added a bit different to the squad. We’ve trained well and I’m looking forward to tomorrow."Pollock missed the Test matches with a strained muscle in his side. He says he can bowl freely now and, given the fact that he only has to get through 10 overs in each match, isn’t expecting any ill-effects. But, he says, it wasn’t easy sitting on the sidelines."It was very frustrating," he said after South African complete their preparations at the Wanderers. "A big series only comes along once in a while. It’s hard not playing. As a player who’s been part of the set-up you’d love to be out there helping the guys. It’s difficult to offer advice off the field. You can only contribute in a certain way. I tried my best in the games to help out, but it’s much easier to be out there yourself."Both captains were understandably wary of drawing too much from the recent contests between the two teams. Australia have beaten South Africa 5-1 in Test matches this summer, but failed to reach the final of the VB Series in Australia, despite holding a 3-1 edge over South Africa in their head-to-head meetings."We played badly against New Zealand (in Australia)," conceded Ponting. "We didn’t play that badly against South Africa. Overall we played OK over there without setting the world on fire, but by our standards we played a fair way below them. We’ve got a fiar bit of improvement to do."Pollock said he felt it might take Ponting a while to settle into his new role, "but he’s got a lot of experienced players around him. I think he’ll turn to those players and they’ll help him through. One-day cricket’s the easier form of the game to captain".Neither captain was giving too much away by way of strategy ahead of the first of seven meetings, but Ponting said that with Mark Waugh missing Matthew Hayden was likely to get an extended run as Adam Gilchrist’s opening partner, and that for the first few games, at least, Australia would probably be fielding their strongest combination.South Africa, meanwhile, are having to do without Allan Donald at the moment which is likely to mean only one change from the side that played in the VB Series finals with Roger Telemachus replacing Donald.And while Pollock admitted that it had taken some time to fathom out what was going wrong in the Test matches, the shortened form of the game was easier to read. "We know what to expect," he said. "In one-day games you’re always trying to adapt and lead from the front. We’ve got a few ideas, which I’ll keep to myself for the moment, but we’ll be trying to lead from the front."

It might not be at the forefront of the mind of anybody involved in the match, but New Zealand and England will be playing for important points in the ICC Test Championship when they begin their three-Test series in Christchurch on Wednesday.The concept of the championship is a good one, but it will not really command great attention until the full cycle of home and away series have been completed to give a true indication of relative positions. Having said that, should the Australians not manage to win the series currently taking place in South Africa and there is a change at the top, there will be a sudden surge of interest in the table.Australia and South Africa are almost in a league of their own, but the outcome of the New Zealand v England series will have interesting repercussions among what might be termed the also rans.England won the last series played in New Zealand in 1996/97 and, according to the way the calculations are made, they need to win again to retain the two points held in the current table. This is where it all becomes a bit complicated and far from straightforward. It is why India did not shoot upthe table when they beat Zimbabwe and why Australia need to win in SouthAfrica to retain first place.Because there have not been home and away series between all the countries,the system takes account of last series played and adds the points won then.Even though the teams did not know they were playing for ICC TestChampionship points at the time. So, a team with 10 points from 10 series has an average of 1.00. If, however, two points were gained from a series that is now superseded by one in which that team gets one point for a drawn series, their average is now 9 points from 10 series, or 0.90. It’s very simple. I’m told!Anyway, England lie fourth at the moment but, should New Zealand take the series, they would leapfrog not only England but also Sri Lanka in third place. The Kiwis’ average would be 1.19 as opposed to Sri Lanka’s 1.14. England, on the other hand, would drop down to fifth equal with the West Indies.Just to cover everything, a drawn series from which both sides take one point would see New Zealand move into fourth place while England would drop to fifth. So, while enjoying the cricket, all you have to do is arm yourself with a calculator and a complete record of Test series going back over the last decade or so, and you too can keep your neighbour informed of the exact state of play in the ICC Test Championship table. It might be safer to rely on CricInfo to tell you what happens when the series is all over!The table, as it stands, reads:

Team       Played   Won     Lost   Drawn   Points   AverageAustralia       13      9       2       2       20      1.54South Africa    16     11       3       2       24      1.50Sri Lanka       14      7       5       2       16      1.14England         15      7       6       2       16      1.07New Zealand     16      7       6       3       17      1.06West Indies     14      6       7       1       13      0.93Pakistan        16      4       7       5       13      0.81India           14      4       7       3       11      0.79Zimbabwe        16      3      11       2        8      0.50Bangladesh       4      0       4       0        0       –

It would have been the highest total in the history of the IPL if it had happened last season, but on Saturday night in Delhi, 266 for 7 almost felt anticlimactic. That’s how far Sunrisers Hyderabad have moved the window of batting possibilities this season. It was the fourth-highest total in IPL history, but it was only the third-highest total achieved by Sunrisers in IPL 2024.At one point it had felt like they could have finished with so much more, with 300 looking like a frighteningly realistic prospect. Sunrisers had gone where no team in any competition had ever gone before in a T20 powerplay, with Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma raising a hair-raising six-over score of 125 for no loss. Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, fortified by the relaxation of field restrictions, brought Sunrisers’ innings back to the earthly realm thereafter, but that awe-inspiring beginning would remain the defining passage of the match.Related

• When Head and Abhishek caused carnage at Kotla

• 125 in 6 overs: Head and Sunrisers shatter T20 powerplay records

• When Head stopped worrying and turned a corner

Delhi Capitals began their reply by racing to the joint second-highest powerplay score of IPL 2024, but it was 88 for 2. Jake Fraser-McGurk bettered Head’s 16-ball effort by one ball to bring up the season’s quickest half-century, but his dismissal in the seventh over effectively ended the contest. Capitals had suggested they might run Sunrisers close when they began their chase, but they slumped badly through its back half, against some excellent defensive bowling led by T Natarajan. In the end they were bowled out for a symbolic 199, with Rishabh Pant struggling for fluency before he was last man out for 44 off 35 balls.

A powerplay from another planet

The first over of the match went for 19, and ended up being the lowest-scoring over of Sunrisers’ powerplay.Head was batting on 84 off 26 balls at the six-over mark, and his opening partner was scoring significantly quicker than him: Abhishek was batting on 40 off 10 at that point.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The hitting was a relentless blur, and no line, length or style of bowling seemed to have any power to stop it. So true was the pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, which was hosting its first game of the season, and so single-minded the two openers in their desire to hit every possible ball to the boundary. Of the 36 balls bowled in the powerplay – Capitals could have given themselves an ironic pat on the back for bowling no wides or no-balls in that time – 13 went for four and 11 for six.

Kuldeep, Axar intervene

Abhishek hit the first non-powerplay ball of the match for six too, stepping out to Kuldeep and going through his shot despite not reaching the pitch of the ball. This had happened in the fifth over too, off the same bowler, and it seemed to reiterate to Capitals’ bowlers that they were on a hiding to nothing.But sometimes a wicket can come out of nowhere, especially if the batters are going after everything, and this is what happened off the next ball, as a diving Axar intercepted an uppish drive at cover.Aiden Markram came in at No. 3 ahead of Heinrich Klaasen – who is more noted as a spin-hitter – and fell in the same over, slapping a not particularly good ball from Kuldeep – shortish and wide – straight to cover. But sometimes, even an ordinary ball from a wristspinner can behave oddly, sticking in the pitch slightly longer, or bouncing a little more than expected.Kuldeep’s value came to the fore again in his next over – after Klaasen hit him for a pair of sixes – when Head failed to get hold of a ball that wasn’t quite short enough to pull. He had put that length away easily in the powerplay, but there was a man back at long-on now and he was out for 89 off 32.Klaasen is a master at pulling not-quite-pullable lengths against the spinners, but on the day he was done in by an Axar skidder that beat his inside edge to bowl him. Sunrisers were a surreal 154 for 4 in 9.1 overs.

Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shahbaz apply the finish

Given how many runs they already had on the board, and given the time that remained in their innings, Sunrisers’ fifth-wicket pair could afford to bat in a relatively conservative way and make sure that Abdul Samad, a specialist death-overs hitter, wouldn’t be called upon too early. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed did this, putting on 67 off 47 balls.1:48

Moody: No risks in Sunrisers’ game

Shahbaz broke free at the finish, hitting Khaleel Ahmed for two sixes in the 19th over and taking two fours and a six off Mukesh Kumar in the 20th to finish unbeaten on 59 off 29 balls. It was the Bengal allrounder’s first fifty in the IPL.

A chase of two halves starring Fraser-McGurk and Pant

Prithvi Shaw hit Washington Sundar for 4, 4, 4, 4 off the first four balls of the chase in a battle of Impact Players. Then Washington had his revenge, looping up a delivery with plenty of overspin – the kind of ball that’s rarely seen in T20 cricket, but one delivered now with the hope of stemming the run-flow giving way to the desperation of somehow prising out a wicket – and getting him to miscue a lofted hit.That first over set the tone for Capitals’ powerplay. They also lost David Warner early, but they kept going hard, because they had to, and because Fraser-McGurk knows no other way. His smooth, unfettered golfer’s swing was in perfect rhythm on the day, and Washington – handed the unforgiving task of bowling two powerplay overs – was at the receiving end of 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 6 in the third over. Abishek Porel then carved Pat Cummins through and over the off side with abandon in a 20-run fifth over, and Capitals were somehow keeping themselves in the game.Fraser-McGurk finally mis-hit one in the seventh over, off Mayank Markande, but despite that wicket Capitals’ win probability kept rising, with Porel crunching three fours and a six in the next over off Shahbaz. At that point, ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster gave them a 21.23% chance of victory, astonishing given the target they were chasing.But that was more or less that, as their run-scoring ground to a halt after Markande – who had a similar effect to Kuldeep, conceding runs but inducing just enough false shots with his wristspin – had Porel stumped in the ninth over.Thanks in part to skillful bowling from Natarajan, Cummins and Reddy – they varied their pace nicely while bowling into the pitch, and used the wide line outside off stump effectively to Pant in particular – and in part to the struggle for fluency that Tristan Stubbs and Pant endured on the day, Capitals went nowhere. From the start of the ninth over to the end of their innings, they scored just 68 runs in 67 balls. The match was long over as a contest when Natarajan took out three wickets in the 19th over to finish with figures of 4 for 19.

Rachael Heyhoe Flint will be commemorated at Lord’s by a newly named gate, after the MCC committee overcame criticism from a section of its membership to agree on a permanent memorial to one of cricket’s most pioneering figures.The gates are set to be commissioned and unveiled in the summer of 2022, and will replace the current North Gate by Wellington Road, the most popular entrance to the ground given its proximity to St John’s Wood tube station, and a fitting tribute to a campaigner whose fight for equal access to the sport was the central tenet of her life.The announcement of what will be the first such memorial to a female cricketer at Lord’s comes on the 45th anniversary of the first women’s international to be hosted at the ground, a one-day fixture between England, captained by Heyhoe Flint, and Australia on August 4, 1976.Baroness Heyhoe Flint, who died in 2017 aged 77, played 22 Tests for England between 1960 and 1979, at a time when the women’s game received scant attention or funding. She went on to become a leading administrator for the women’s game, and in 2014 was integral in securing England’s women their first tranche of ECB central contracts. In 2020, the ECB women’s regional competition was named in her honour.However, her most significant contribution to the sport came in 1973, when she devised and established the first Cricket World Cup – a women’s event that preceded the first men’s tournament by two years. She went on to lift the trophy herself after England beat Australia in the final, which was held at Edgbaston because women at that stage were still not permitted to play at Lord’s.In 1998, Heyhoe Flint successfully lobbied for MCC to end its centuries-old exclusion of women from its membership, and the following year she became one of the first ten female members to be granted honorary life membership of the club. In 2010, she was commemorated by a portrait in the pavilion at Lord’s, which stood over the entrance to the Long Room as England’s women won the World Cup at the ground a few months after her death in 2017.Guy Lavender, Chief Executive and Secretary of MCC, said: “We wanted to recognise not only Rachael Heyhoe Flint’s playing career, but also her enduring impact on the game. Women’s access to play and watch cricket at Lord’s, and to participate in the game more widely, has come a long way and in commissioning new gates featuring a permanent memorial at Lord’s we are recognising Rachael Heyhoe Flint’s crucial role in this progression.”Ben Heyhoe Flint, Rachael’s son, said: “When the vote was passed to allow women to become Members in 1998, I ran with Mum, giddy with delight, out of Lord’s Tavern to the Grace Gate for a barrage of interviews. It feels like there’s a lovely symmetry that she is now remembered with a gate of her own. This is the honour of all possible honours: a means of access – for everyone to be able to enter the Home of Cricket – is a perfect memorial to match Mum’s beliefs as a champion of access and equality. I’m just wondering if I’ll need to bow when I next go through it!”

Big picture

The series was of significant importance for both teams in their preparations ahead of the T20 World Cup but so far rain has ruled the headlines, ditching all the promises for the series. With two of three games washed out and one game slashed before the series began, Pakistan come into the final match against West Indies 1-0 ahead.Pakistan’s run-scoring has revolved around Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam. They have rejigged their line-up to break the two up, playing Sharjeel Khan as an opener, but the washouts mean they haven’t gathered enough evidence to vindicate the tweak. The middle-order conundrum is deeper than ever with Mohammad Hafeez’s silent bat, misfiring Sohaib Maqsood and inexperienced Azam Khan out with an injury.For a while now, Hafeez has been in the side mainly because of his batting with his bowling being used on an as-and-when-needed basis. However, his four-over spell – at an economy of 1.50 – in the only completed game, earned him the Player-of-the-Match award and has been a big positive for Pakistan. More of that in the final T20I will give Pakistan wider options for the World Cup to be played in the UAE, where pitches are more conducive to spin.

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The West Indies vs Pakistan series is available in the US on ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ and tune in to the match.

West Indies, under Kieron Pollard, were hoping to know most of their first-choice picks by the end of this series but have not learnt much either. Despite restricting Pakistan to 157 in the second T20I, their dangerous batting order failed to display the firepower they are synonymous with. Only Nicholas Pooran made any impression, scoring an unbeaten 62 runs off 33 balls.On Tuesday, Pakistan will be eyeing an away series win, and while winning remains paramount, what they would seek is batters apart from Rizwan and Azam to raise their hands. Before the series, Azam had promised to check the bench strength. In that sense, this game gives both sides yet another opportunity to finetune their respective team combinations.

Form guide

West Indies LWLWW (last five completed T20I, most recent first)
Australia WLLWW

In the spotlight

Chris Gayle scored a match-winning 67 against Australia but against Pakistan, has scored 7, 16 and 1*. In the last 12 months, he is averaging 16.53 with a strike rate of 114.97 with just one half-century in 15 T20Is. His T20 numbers aren’t great either; this year he has played 25 innings and averaged 22.72 at a strike rate of 130.20. The last calendar year where he averaged less than 25 in T20s was in 2010. West Indies will have to see whether he’s strengthening the batting unit or weakening it.Gayle showed he still has the hands for international cricket against Australia, can he repeat it against Pakistan?•AFP

Pakistan’s middle and lower order will be under scrutiny. In the last completed game, they were well set to go past 180 but finished with a middling 157, including just 23 runs in the last four overs despite a fairly long batting line-up. Maqsood’s success has largely been built batting in the top order, but being sent in at No. 7 is reducing his effectiveness. Fakhar Zaman and Hafeez’s numbers keep fluctuating, and the pinch-hitting stocks of Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali dip when transitioning from T20s to T20Is. Can they come together to the best of their potential this time around?

Team news

With their two-first choice openers nursing injuries – Lendl Simmons was injured in the first match and Evin Lewis retired hurt in the second – Gayle could open alongside Andre Fletcher.West Indies (probable): 1 Andre Fletcher, 2 Chris Gayle, 3 Shimron Hetmyer 4 Nicholas Pooran (wk) 5 Kieron Pollard (capt), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Dwayne Bravo, 10 Hayden Walsh, 11 Akeal HoseinIt’s likely that Haris Rauf remains in the XI after he replaced Shaheen Shah Afridi for the washed-out third match. Azam Khan, however, could make it to the XI if he is cleared by the medical team.Pakistan (probable): 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 2 Sharjeel Khan, 3 Babar Azam, (capt) 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Mohammad Hafeez, 6 Sohaib Maqsood/Azam Khan, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Hasan Ali, 9 Mohammad Wasim, 10 Usman Qadir, 11 Haris Rauf

Pitch and conditions

With rain predicted for the week as a whole, there is a chance that the contest may be a shortened one. However, there is a clear window in the day but conditions are expected to be overcast. Win toss, bowl first may be the best bet.

Stats and trivia

• During the second T20I, Rizwan became the most-prolific run-getter in a single calendar year in the format.

West Indies have dropped opener Kraigg Brathwaite from their ODI squad to take on Pakistan. Carlos Brathwaite, who led West Indies in the four-match T20 series completed on Sunday, was also left out and allowed to travel to the IPL early* ahead of a series that is crucial to West Indies’ chances of automatic World Cup qualification.Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel was fit to be included, after straining his side during the second ODI against England, while wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton, whose last ODI appearance was in 2014, returned to the squad selected for the first two matches against Pakistan. All three ODIs will take place in Guyana, starting with the first match on Friday.

West Indies ODI squad

Jason Holder (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Jonathan Carter, Miguel Cummins, Shannon Gabriel, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell, Chadwick Walton

Kraigg Brathwaite made his ODI debut last year against Pakistan but has averaged 27.80 from ten innings, with a strike rate of 57.55 – no one has batted more slowly (with a qualification of 100 runs) in that time. He made scores of 14, 42 and 5 during the 3-0 defeat against England last month, as West Indies struggled to build competitive totals.Evin Lewis also failed to make a significant impact in the England series but, after blasting 91 to help West Indies win the third T20 against Pakistan, he retains his place and is likely to open alongside Kieran Powell. Walton is also a candidate to bat at the top of the order.West Indies decided not to select Carlos Brathwaite, who captained the side during their 3-1 T20 defeat, and instead allow him to link up with IPL franchise Delhi Daredevils this week. Brathwaite’s form in ODIs has not made him an automatic pick and his absence could open the door for Jamaica allrounder Rovman Powell.Pakistan are currently No. 8 in the ICC’s ODI rankings, holding the final automatic qualification spot for the 2019 World Cup; West Indies are in ninth, with five ranking points separating the sides. Failure to beat Pakistan would leave West Indies – who will be absent from this year’s Champions Trophy – struggling to catch them ahead of September’s cut-off and facing the prospect of having to come through the ICC Qualifier.*April 4, 1030 GMT – This story was updated to clarify Carlos Brathwaite’s omission